Daily Recovery Readings - October

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October 27

Daily Reflections

GLOBAL SHARING

The only thing that matters is that he is an alcoholic who has found a key to sobriety.
These legacies of suffering and of recovery are easily passed among alcoholics, one to
the other. This is our gift from God, and its bestowal upon others like us is the one aim
that today animates A.A.'s all around the globe.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 151

The strength of Alcoholics Anonymous lies in the desire of each member and of each
group around the world to share with other alcoholics their suffering and the steps taken
to gain, and maintain, recovery. By keeping a conscious contact with my Higher Power, I
make sure that I always nurture my desire to help other alcoholics, thus insuring the
continuity of the wonderful fraternity of Alcoholics Anonymous.

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Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

Seventh, I can help other alcoholics. I am of some use in the world. I have a purpose in
life. I am worth something at last. My life has a direction and a meaning. All that feeling
of futility is gone. I can do something worthwhile. God has given me a new lease on life so
that I can help other alcoholics. He has let me live through all the hazards of my alcoholic
life to bring me at last to a place of real usefulness in the world. He has let me live for
this. This is my opportunity and my destiny. I am worth something! Will I give as much of
my life as I can to A.A.?

Meditation For The Day

All of us have our own battle to win, the battle between the material view of life and the
spiritual view. Something must guide our lives. Will it be wealth, pride, selfishness, greed
or will it be faith, honesty, purity, unselfishness, love and service? Each one has a choice.
We can choose good or evil. We cannot choose both. Are we going to keep striving
until we win the battle? If we win the victory, we can believe that even God in His heaven
will rejoice.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may choose the good and resist the evil. I pray that I will not be a loser in the
battle for righteousness.

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As Bill Sees It

A Mighty Beginning, p. 298

Even the newest of newcomers find undreamed rewards as he tries to
help his brother alcoholic, the one who is even blinder than he. This is
indeed the kind of giving that actually demands nothing. He does not
expect his brother sufferer to pay him, or even to love him.

And then he discovers that through the divine paradox of this kind of
giving he has found his own reward, whether or not his brother has yet
received anything. His own character may still be gravely defective,
but he somehow knows that God has enabled him to make a mighty
beginning, and he senses that he stands at the edge of new mysteries,
joys, and experiences of which he had never before dreamed.

12 & 12, pp. 109-110

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Walk In Dry Places

Is your opinion of me important?
Inventory
A statement that is often quoted at AA meetings is Your opinion of me is not important. The purpose of this saying, apparently, is to wean us away from being people pleasers.
But the truth is that we all have legitimate interest in the opinions others hold of us. They may like or dislike us for the wrong reasons, but it is helpful for us to know this and accept it.
More important, the opinions of others can be useful in helping us take personal inventory and correct wrong behavior and attitudes. There may be a good reason why someone has a low opinion of us, and we should become aware of it.
It is true, however, that our opinions count the most in shaping our lives. If we're thinking badly about others, that can be more damaging to us than to them. Surprisingly, they may think better of us as we change our opinions about them.
I doubt that I can go through the day without being affected by other people's opinions of me. However, my main work will be in seeing that my own opinions aren't being destructive in my life.

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Keep It Simple

An excuse is worst and more terrible than a lie.---Alexander Pope
Excuses. They’re lies. We use excuses to hide from ourselves. Maybe we don’t want to be honest about our anger. So we say someone else made us angry. Maybe we don’t want to admit how mean we can be. So we pretend we have no part in what happens.
Excuses keep us from ourselves. They keep us from our High Power. A lot of our program is about looking at ourselves. Steps Four, Five, and Ten tell us to be honest about our excuses. We can be honest because we are good people. We are loved.
Prayer for the day: Today, I’ll say the serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Action for the Day: I’ll list my five most often excuses. Then, I’ll share them with my friends, family, and sponsor. I’ll ask them to tell me when I make excuses.

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Each Day a New Beginning

Problems have only the size and the power that you give them. --S. H.
We will not be free from all difficulties today, or during any period of our lives. But we have the personal power to eliminate the threat, the sting of any challenge. But it's our vision of circumstances that gives them their interpretation.
At this moment, we are defining our experience. We are labeling events good or bad, valuable or meaningless. And our growth, particularly this day, is greatly influenced by the value judgments we attach to our experiences.
As we grow stronger emotionally and spiritually, we learn that all difficulties are truly opportunities for exceptional growth and increased awareness of the truth of existence. All experiences can be taken in stride if we are trustful of their intended blessing.
We are sharing this life, every moment of it, with a power greater than ourselves. We need not worry about any circumstance. Always we are watched over. We never need struggle alone.
We can let go of our problems. It's ourselves and that attitude we have cultivated that makes any situation a problem. We can turn it loose and therein discover the solution.
I will not make mountains out of the molehills of my life.

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

Chapter 5 - HOW IT WORKS

We turned back to the list, for it held the key to the future. We were prepared to look for it from an entirely different angle. We began to see that the world and its people really dominated us. In that state, the wrong-doing of others, fancied or real, had power to actually kill. How could we escape? We saw that these resentments must be mastered, but how? We could not wish them away any more than alcohol.

p. 66

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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Twelve - "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs."

When the distortion has been great, however, a long period of patient striving may be necessary. After the husband joins A.A., the wife may become discontented, even highly resentful that Alcoholics Anonymous has done the very thing that all her years of devotion had failed to do. Her husband may become so wrapped up in A.A. and his new friends that he is inconsiderately away from home more than when he drank. Seeing her unhappiness, he recommends A.A.'s Twelve Steps and tries to teach her how to live. She naturally feels that for years she has made a far better job of living than he has. Both of them blame each other and ask when their marriage is ever going to be happy again. They may even begin to suspect it had never been any good in the first place.

pp. 118-119

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Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of others, but from doing
something worthwhile.
--Wilfred Grenfell

If you can hold someone's hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder...you
are blessed because you can offer healing touch.
--unknown

"Never let yesterday use up today."
--Richard H. Nelson

LETTING GO
I feel so scared
Let go
I am so worried
Just let go
I am so angry
Please let go
My insanity keeps growing
I beseech thee to just let go
I am so peaceful
Thank you, you let it go
--Deborah Ann Smith

Forgiveness means letting go of the past.
--Gerald Jampolsky

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Father Leo's Daily Meditation

JUSTICE

"Justice is truth in action."
Benjamin Disraeli

It is not enough for me to believe that a thing is true, it is important for me to live out
my beliefs. For too long I had a thousand beliefs that only kept me silent. A fear of
displeasing others played a large part in my silence.

Today I understand justice to be part of what I mean by spirituality: I need to be seen
to walk as I talk! I am comfortable when I remain silent in the face of injustice. As a
recovering alcoholic, this uncomfortability is dangerous because it can so easily lead
to low self-esteem, anger, resentments and relapse.

Today I know I can have a slip without taking a drink. I slip from where I want to be
in my life. My personal integrity combines a justice that can be seen in my lifestyle.

O God of justice, teach me never again to hide in the lie of silence.

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"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly
lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
James 1:17

"Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the
breastplate of righteousness in place."
Ephesians 4:14

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Daily Inspiration

It is the little bits of kindness and love that make this world happy. Lord, may I do my part to make today happy for someone.

There is no personal problem that you cannot solve. Lord, Your presence within me is all power. You are my help in every need.